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Shantanu Bagchi Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

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Hometown: Calcutta
Profession: Film Director

Shantanu Bagchi

Bio/Wiki
ProfessionFilm Director
Famous forDirecting the Bollywood film 'Mission Majnu' in 2023
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)in centimeters- 165 cm
in meters- 1.65 m
in feet & inches- 5’ 5”
Eye ColourBlack
Hair ColourBlack
Career
DebutFilm: Mission Majnu (2023)
Poster of the film 'Mission Majnu'
Advertisement: Nycil Cool Shower (2015) [1]Kraft Heinz India
Awards• New York Festival Award twice
• MVA
• The Book Award
• Asian Cannes Award
• Goa Fest Award
• A and M Award
• IPDA Award
• Indian Ad Club Award
Personal Life
AgeNot Known
BirthplaceCalcutta
NationalityIndian
HometownCalcutta
College/UniversityNational Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Educational QualificationGraphic Designing [2]NewsdayExpress
Relationships & More
Marital StatusNot Known
Family
Wife/SpouseN/A

Shantanu Bagchi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shantanu Bagchi

  • Shantanu Bagchi is an Indian film director who is known for directing the Bollywood film ‘Mission Majnu’ in 2023.
  • Shantanu was born in Calcutta and since his childhood, he was very inspired by director Satyajit Ray. He met him when he was five or six years old and worked with him as a child actor. Shantanu played the role of a boy who was kidnapped in place of Mukul in Sonar Kella. He got interested in filmmaking when he watched Satyajit Ray’s ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ for the first time. He also gained an interest in animation, but while he was growing up, animation was only available on Disney.

    Shantanu Bagchi as a child with Satyajit Ray

    Shantanu Bagchi as a child with Satyajit Ray

  • He has appeared in four to five films as a child actor. He acted in Ramer Sumati, based on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s work. In an interview, he said that he was in touch with Sandipda (Ray) and visited him when he went to meet his sister in Kolkata.
  • After completing his graduation at Ahmedabad, he shifted to Mumbai and started ad filmmaking. He started by making television commercials. When he did his first ad film for Rasna’s instant orange drink, in 1991, he was told that it was an unpaid project. He has made around 500 ad commercials across brands and has worked with Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kajol, Saif Ali Khan, Brett Lee, Sachin Tendulkar and Katrina Kaif. In an interview, he said that while working with them, the celebrities did not throw tantrums and were not difficult to work with. He received many international awards and his work was appreciated at many big global levels from Cannes.
  • According to him, while he was making ads, he was also working on films. He used to tell stories through his ads and convenience people with them. He used to read a lot of film scripts but did not like any of them. One day finally, he liked the script of the film ‘Mission Majnu’ after which he debuted as a director in 2023.
  • He was influenced by other filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica, Majid Majidi, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, James Cameron, and Ridley Scott.
  • When he was a student, he used to do illustration work with one of India’s leading children’s comics magazines.

    An illustration work by Shantanu Bagchi

    An illustration work by Shantanu Bagchi

  • He used to create TVCs based on sketches of RK Laxman and paintings of Jamini Roy.

  • He has created two animation films based on sketches of RK Laxman and paintings of Jamini Roy.

  • After the film ‘Mission Majnu’ was released, it was trending in the top 10 films list in 18 countries on Netflix including India, Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sri Lanka. It also became the No. 2 non-English film globally on Netflix in its opening weekend of release and has also taken up the first spot in India.
  • He always wanted to make films about people who did not receive much recognition from the public. He wanted to work on a spy thriller story and Indian history was the only place he could find. In an interview, he talked about working on a spy film and said,

    It is a multi-plot film. To keep the pace and tell it in an engrossing way was the challenge. But I enjoy watching spy thrillers and it was a great story based on real events. I was excited and kicked to direct such interesting material.”

  • In an interview, he talked about the challenges of being a first-time director. He said he was not very creative because it was his first time. He also added that the actors who worked with him took some time to have faith in him.
  • In 2023, the story of his film Mission Majnu was criticized by the actor Adnan Siddiqui who said that there was a misrepresentation of Pakistanis in the film and that the film was “distasteful” and factually inaccurate. In a social media post, he said that Pakistanis “don’t wear skull caps, surma, and tawiz, neither throw adaabs” but Sidharth Malhotra who portrayed the role of Tariq was seen wearing them in the film.

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